This invention is directed to a flexural mode tuning fork quartz crystal vibrator, and in particular to the placement of photo-etched electrodes on the sides of a quartz crystal vibrator having a thickness no greater than 0.2 mm to improve the vibratory characteristics thereof.
A recent development in manufacturing quartz crystal vibrators is the use of photo-chemical etching techniques for forming the electrodes on a quartz crystal plate. By such photo-etching techniques, the manufacturing yield has been increased while the size and price of the vibrators have been decreased. Quartz crystal vibrators utilizing such photo-etching techniques, although having reduced thickness and size, have electrodes formed on the opposed planar surfaces, only, and hence have not been able to better the performance of conventional thick quartz crystal vibrators fabricated by mechanical forming processes. Accordingly, an improved thin plate quartz crystal vibrator wherein the electrodes are formed by photo-etching is desired.